


Distorted View

by Kizmet



Series: Chasing Ideal [16]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dysfunctional Relationships, Gen, Not Steve Friendly, POV Third Person Limited, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 05:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11201148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: A reworking of the Avengers battle scene from "5+1 Valentines" to shift the focus from how Tony's relationship with the Avengers impacts his relationship with Pepper to Tony and Steve's relationship with each other and why the team's a mess.





	1. Steve's POV

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [5 Valentine's Pepper and Tony didn't Spend as a Couple +1 They Spent as a Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10760793) by [Kizmet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet). 



> It's been stuck in my head for awhile that the battle from the 2015 Valentine’s chapter didn't quite come off the way I intended to. Going back I think part of the problem is the perspective. It's technically third person omniscient but that sort of a cheat because it's 85-90% from Tony's perspective and 1% Steve's with the rest of the team making up the difference. 
> 
> So, one of my favorite books is “Phantom” by Susan Kay which is an expansion on “Phantom of the Opera” telling the whole of Erik’s life through a series of first person narratives, I like playing with perspective. Since first person perspective and battle scenes don’t really appeal, I reworked the battle and events around it into two chapters using strictly third person limited perspective, one chapter follows Steve the other Tony as a bit of a writing exercise. Even while I'm try to be fair to Steve's POV, I think it still earns the "Not Steve Friendly" tag but hopefully does a better job of illustrating how Tony's a serious contributing factor in the Avengers team being a disaster going into AoU. Plus a tangent into the how and why of Maria Hill's faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. between CAWS and AoU.
> 
> The game is nothing actually said or done can change between Tony and Steve’s POV… But things can be subtracted as they don’t necessarily notice the same things.

Steve flipped through the documents spread across Sam's kitchen table. “I'm pretty sure that HYDRA never had Barnes at this place,” Sam said “But it is HYDRA and we’re getting low on leads.”

“In other words, you're at the same place we are with regards to the search for Loki's scepter,” Natasha remarked. “We ought to pool resources.”

“That's exactly what we are doing here,” Steve said.

Natasha eyed him speculatively. “That's why we're in D.C. holding a meeting in Wilson's kitchen instead of asking him to join us at Avengers’ Tower? You aren't hiding your search for Barnes from Stark?”

“I'm not hiding it,” Steve stated forcefully. “But, given what Zola implied, I'm not comfortable using Tony's resources to search for Bucky.”

Natasha grimaced, “He won't help Barnes even though he was brainwashed?”

“We don't know that Bucky actually did it,” Steve protested immediately. “Zola could have been just trying to stir up trouble, he's hardly a reliable source.”

“Well, the three of us can't check this place out on our own,” Sam said. “It might be abandoned but so was the last one and it's a miracle that we got out alive.”

“And we lost all but a fraction of the information when the base self-destructed,” Natasha added. “We need the team for this. Just say that there might be leads to the scepter. It’s perfectly true, so there's no reason to invite trouble by mentioning Barnes.”

Steve nodded _‘There's no reason to bring up Bucky. We don't even know that he really killed Howard.'_

* * *

Steve glanced around the conference room, making eye contact with each of the Avengers, then pointedly clearing his throat to draw Tony and Clint's attention away from whatever they were looking at on their respective cellphones.

Clint gave Steve a shamefaced grin and slipped the phone into his pocket. 

“Don't worry, I'm good at multitasking,” Tony said while continuing to type away on his phone.

“It's respectful to give your full attention to the person speaking to you,” Steve reprimanded him.

“What are we, in grade school?” Tony snorted. “How about I make you a deal? Say something more interesting than my R&D group’s need for hand-holding and I’ll put their dithering on hold until you're done. Hell, might do ‘em some good to pull off the safety wheels. Do you think Hill would go for it if I asked her to put a gun to a few heads down there and order them to man up and make a choice?”

Steve walked over and grabbed the phone out of Tony's hands, giving Tony a severely disapproving look as he did so.

“I'm so bringing the armor to our next mandatory team meeting,” Tony muttered after eyeing the phone for a moment, undoubtedly calculating the odds against successfully wrestling it back out of the super soldier’s grasp. Then he made a point of not looking attentive as the meeting got underway.

“Sam's been following up on some HYDRA leads for me,” Steve said. “He's found an abandoned base in Montana, we might be able to get back on their trail if we can extract their current whereabouts. Natasha and I raided a similar base with him a month ago. We ran into more trouble than we could easily handle, so this time I want to bring in the whole team.”

“You left me out of the loop?” Clint asked making puppy dog eyes at Natasha.

“It was the tenth,” Natasha said, giving the date particular weight.

Clint flushed and let it drop.

“I wanted to go over what we ran into last time,” Steve said. He frowned at Tony, “So we’re prepared.”

“There's also some time pressure,” Sam said. “We're not the only ones out there hitting HYDRA remnants.”

“It's probably S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Tony declared nonchalantly. 

Everyone stared at him.

“What?” Tony demanded. “Doesn't anyone talk to Hill? S.H.I.E.L.D. is far from gone. In fact it’s multiplying or at least splintering: There's SI-S.H.I.E.L.D. plus at least two underground S.H.I.E.L.D.s who are not HYDRA and that's not even mentioning the dozen factions of S.H.I.E.L.DRA that we’re all hunting.”

Steve bit back a sign as Tony launched into full ramble-mode. _‘Howard was a showman but he’d known when to turn it off and give a concise report. Why hadn’t he passed that skill on to his son?’_

“I'd have put it in an email but Hill’d kill me since SI-S.H.I.E.L.D. is cover; the ‘Oh yes, we're all the surviving Not-HYDRA S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, ready and willing to jump through hoop, yes sir Mr. Government man’ division. Then there's the business-as-usual minus, you know, the official sanctioning S.H.I.E.L.D. According to Hill I got the folks with family who can't go dark types but you wanna bet on how many of them weren't recruited from, let's say, nonstandard sources?” He glanced at Natasha and Clint, “I'm sure Hush-Hush-S.H.I.E.L.D. would have extended an invite except people might wonder where you'd gone if you weren't Avenging.

“And there's other-S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill suspects they aren't bad, just a group her Hush-Hush-S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't round up, probably thinks they are the ‘real’ S.H.I.E.L.D. survivors or something,” Tony continued blithely. “Odds are it’s one of them beating you to the punch. Talk about reinventing the wheel, this whole secret agent shindig makes communication like getting the right and left hand on the same page after a lobotomy.”

“And you didn't tell us this before?” Steve broke in finally losing patience.

Tony blinked at him. “Why didn't you know? I did email you that I'd scooped up Hill and her crew of unemployed ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. and that they'd be handling logistical support for the Avengers from here on. For the love of all that’s holy, please tell me you do email. I am not going back to the Stone Ages of pen and paper.”

_‘And then there are the insults. As if his love-affair with his own voice weren’t enough,’_ Steve thought. “Back to a mode of communication where people actually thought about what they were saying before making it public?” he asked dryly.

Tony snorted, “Keep telling yourself that grandpa, I’ve heard the song.”

“Can we get this meeting back on track?” Sam begged when Steve appeared to be floundering.

Steve smiled gratefully at him. “Sam could you tell us about the defenses you encountered?” he asked.

Steve felt a momentary flash of mixed approval and relief when Tony’s attention visibly sharpened as Natasha started explaining the challenges she’d run into while breaking into the previous base’s computers. But after only a few minutes he interrupted her, “I’m shocked, the Black Widow fell for a honeypot trap?” Tony shook his head sadly. “Delegate people, if you don't have the computer chops admit it. We have five ex-S.H.I.E.L.D.’s who specialize in data recovery not counting yours truly. Even if you didn't realize you were in over your head until the last minute JARVIS is on speed-dial.”

Steve put a supportive hand on Natasha's shoulder. “This is intended as a constructive exercise, Natasha is sharing her first hand experience with HYDRA’s security systems. What if scenarios, frankly boasting about how you could have done better if you'd been in her place, accomplishes nothing.”

“And my P.h.D in computer sciences and, oh, I don't know, the fact that I simultaneously broke into multiple governments’ secured servers from my cell phone while playing star guest at a Senate Hearing means nothing?” Tony asked. He turned to Bruce, “Does it actually help people remember that you're an expert, not to mention a fucking genius if you insist on the doctor thing?”

“Language!” Steve reprimanded.

“My old man was always said that but most of what he said to me was a load of shit,” Tony continued over Steve.

Bruce grinned a bit, “I don't know, people might suddenly start expecting you to deliver babies, give stitches or treat PTSD.”

Tony shuddered theatrically, “Can't have that. I'll thank you to keep me away from all your squishy sciences.”

Steve slapped the table loudly, “Could we hear out Natasha’s report like civilized adults?” he demanded. When Tony leaned over and slipped Bruce’s phone out of his pocket Steve decided to ignore it. The debriefing went much more smoothly once Tony was ignoring the meeting. “Alright, we’ll leave at 0500,” Steve concluded. He put his hand over the phone in Tony's hands “You got that Stark?”

“Oooh, military jargon, my heart’s aflutter,” Tony replied as he ignored Steve's personal space to dig his phone out of Steve’s pocket then tossed Bruce’s back to him. “Couldn't get any work done without access to SI’s secure servers but I upgraded power usage algorithms, should increase battery life by ten percent… And I beat your top score. Angry birds, Brucie-bear? Really?”

“What can I say, it's addictive,” Bruce laughed.

Thor's eyes lit up, he draped an arm around Bruce’s shoulders, “Mayhap you could explain why the Pigs would resort to criminal methods…”

* * *

The next morning Steve felt a fission of discomfort when he saw Maria Hill and two other agents waiting for the Avengers in the Quinjet’s hangar chatting with Nat and Clint. Tony said all the SHIELD agent currently employed at SI checked out but HYDRA had gotten past Fury’s guard so what did they really know?

“Tony brought them in to help him with the data retrieval,” Natasha explained. Steve’s lips narrowed, _‘After all his bragging Tony brought in help for his task. Howard would have handled it himself.’_

Tony arrived in the hangar seven minutes late, with a tray of coffee cups that he promptly handed over to the agents, “For keeping you up all night,” he said. “I assume you got all the clearances?”

Maria grabbed one of the cups and held it beneath her nose savoring the aroma and the warmth of the cup. “You’re forgiven for the last minute request, this time anyway, Stark.”

Steve frowned, he hoped Tony hadn’t actually asked her to point a gun at someone from his R&D staff. “You knew the mission was first thing in the morning,” he said quietly to Tony, not wanting to make too big of a deal of reprimanding the man but also not wanting to let the behavior become habitual. “You should have made sure the people you brought into this were fresh for it instead of keeping them up doing you favors.”

“Eight hours is a myth perpetrated by geriatrics like you Cap,” Tony said flippantly. 

Just fifty minutes later they landed on the outskirts of a town that, except for the late model cars, didn't look too different from some of the western cities Steve had visited on his USO tour. “There’s the entryway, just like Sam said,” Steve said guiding his team toward an abandoned grain silo.

“I’m getting more heat signatures than an abandoned base warrants,” Tony announced self-importantly. 

“Sam wouldn’t give us bad intel,” Steve defended his friend.

“Just because HYDRA moved out, that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t moved in,” Natasha cautioned. 

“You’re right,” Steve sighed. “Agent Hill, hold your men back until the site is secured. Clint, Natasha, you think there’s enough cover for you to safely scout it out or should we go in hot and try to subdue them before they can get their bearings?”

“If they’re underground I guarantee they’ve got a healthy vent system,” Clint said. 

“We’ll be in and out with none the wiser, trust us Steve,” Natasha added.

Steve nodded. “Be careful and don’t hesitate to call us in if things go pear-shaped.” 

Steve watched anxiously while Tony helped Natasha and Clint disable the alarms on secret entrance below the old grain silo then joined the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. trio and Bruce Banner while the spies headed inside. “It is hard to watch those who follow you go into danger without you at their fore,” Thor said sympathetically as he waited with Steve. 

Six tense minutes later Steve’s comm crackled to life, “I count upwards of thirty grunts wearing the Serpent Society emblem and carrying heavy artillery,” Natasha reported. 

“I could have told you that,” Tony interrupted.

“If you don't have anything useful to say,” Steve reprimanded Tony then pressed his hand to his ear bud. “Clint, what’s your count?”

“Another five mooks plus four costumes,” the archer said. “One of them’s a hottie but no one we've seen before- Shit, I'm made.”

“Iron Man, go through the ceiling. Get us to him and Nat, now” Steve snapped urgently.

“Aye, aye mon Capitaine,” Tony said as his faceplate snapped down and he blasted off. Iron Man hovered over the parking lot for an interminable time before finally firing off a pair of missiles. Before the smoke cleared Steve was through the hole, hitting ground along with the last of the debris from the shattered ceiling. Thor was immediately behind him, then a few seconds later Iron Man joined them.

Natasha was fighting against heavy odds while Clint used explosive arrows to keep the Enhanced criminals from joining the battle and completely overwhelming her. “Damn! Why didn’t I have these on our last mission?” Clint exclaimed as he fired off another round. 

Steve glanced over at Thor, if Clint was freed from the burden of keeping the four elite members of the Society off Natasha’s back Steve trusted the two assassins could turn the tide against their numerically superior but less skilled adversaries. 

As soon as Steve and Thor moved to engage the Serpent Society’s elites the pink haired woman and the man with the strange cloak both backed off. Steve found himself up against a snake-man with robotic arms attached to his torso and a snake’s coils in place of legs while Thor fought a man wearing a mask that covered the top half of his face and supported a cobra like hood. 

Steve threw a punch at the snake-man’s jaw only for his opponent to slither to the side and return the blow with such speed that Steve was barely able to get his shield in place to block. Then he jumped back and narrowly avoided a knife thrown by Pink. 

Several of Stark’s repulsor blasts went wild taking down the ceiling on one end of the room and the distraction caused Steve to misjudge one of Pink’s attacks. He managed to turn his head at the last second and only took a graze across his cheek instead of ending up with three inches of steel through his eye. For a moment Steve felt woozy but his enhanced metabolism quickly burned through whatever was coating the knife.

Another explosion shook the room, Steve couldn’t have said if it was one of Clint's explosive arrows or Stark’s missiles.

Steve grabbed the snake-man’s arm and tossed him at a wall. The weight of the man’s coils helped him to land upright and he launched himself back at Steve with unnatural speed.

Thor laughed as he and his hooded opponent tumbled across the floor. The demi-god sounded much too cheerful for a battlefield. Steve thought of the poison on Pink’s blades and spared a second to wonder about it’s effect on Thor’s physiology.

Steve smashed the edge of his shield into the snake-man’s false arms. Then he felt one of Pink’s knives slice across the small of his back, seeking the seam between his pants and jacket.

“I've got the girl, so you boys don't have to feel guilty about hitting her,” Natasha said. Steve felt a measure of relief that he wouldn’t have to worry about the other team’s sniper much longer. Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Natasha and Clint work together to capture Pink, pinning her to the wall with a net arrow. 

Then he felt a whoosh of displaced air and heard the whine of Iron Man’s repulsors as Stark practically crashed into him while pursuing the caped leader of the Serpents. Just as suddenly the two of them were gone. From the other side of the room Steve heard Stark shout. “Let’s see who loses their lunch first.” For the next five minutes Iron Man and the the Serpents’ leader were seemingly everywhere, plowing through the other battles without concern for the potential damage to their teammates. There was a ground-shaking bang, “I win,” Stark declared weakly over the comms. 

Without the need to watch out for the Serpents’ sniper or Stark’s wild maneuvers Steve was finally able to gain the upper hand against the snake-man, using his shield to bash at the man’s prosthetics until his claw-like arms were nothing more than bent, sparking metal. 

Thor laughed as he and Hooded fought for the leverage to pin the other. The demi-god’s face was flushed, his eyes dilated and the small cuts from Pink’s knives leaked discolored blood. “Victory will be Thor’s Midgard Serpent!” he exclaimed jovially as he managed to free a hand to summon Mjolnir. With one hand on Hooded’s throat Thor pressed the man to the floor and raised his hammer as if to smash in his skull.

“Thor stop!” Steve exclaimed feeling disturbed by Thor’s murderous good humor.

Power crackled around the hammer and lightning filled cavernous room. Steve saw one of the discharges strike Clint and send the archer tumbling from his perch “Tony! Grab Clint!” Steve shouted but Tony, functionally their only flier, blasted off toward the hole in the ceiling ignoring Clint’s peril and barely missing being fried himself as another lightning bolt answered Thor’s call. 

“Tony!” Steve shouted even as he threw his shield at Clint. The impact knocked the stunned archer back from the precipice, audibly breaking several ribs in the process.

“Big guy, I think he’s down,” Natasha said, adopting her Hulk-calming tones as she staggered toward Thor. “The day’s won, no reason to bring the roof down on your shield-brothers, hmm?” 

Thor blinked at her then glanced at the charred corpse at his feet. “A glorious victory,” he said smiling. “We shall feast.” 

“Right after Clint and I get a little hospital time,” Natasha promised, leaning into Thor’s side. He lowered the hammer to offer her support. Both Steve and Natasha sighed in relief. 

“Everything alright there?” Bruce asked worriedly over the comms. 

“Fight’s over,” Steve confirmed as he started free climbing the wall to get to the spot where he’d knocked the archer. “Tell Stark and Agent Hill it’s time for them to get to work.”

“I think I might have a concussion,” Tony whined.

“You’re lucky Clint isn’t dead,” Steve replied angrily as he pulled himself onto the shelf where Clint lay, his expression twisted with pain. Steve ripped open Clint’s body armor and saw a huge, crescent shaped bruise across the man’s back and left side. 

Bruce repelled down with a backboard to join Steve. “Natasha told me what happened. It’s better to be safe if there’s even a chance of spinal injury.” Steve closed his eyes guiltily, wondering if maybe he still could have knocked Clint back onto the ledge while using less force. 

The not-that-kind-of-doctor spent several moments carefully probing Clint’s bruises then declared, “At least two, if not three of his ribs are broken.”

“I hate broken ribs,” Clint groaned, “It’ll be months before I can pull a bow properly.”

“If Iron Man had just been paying attention to his teammates,” Steve muttered to himself.

Bruce glanced up at Steve over his glasses, “Tony usually has a reason for everything he does.” 

“Even if he does, he never tells the rest of us what he’s up to,” Steve refused to relent. “He can’t be part of this team and always marching to his own beat.”

Bruce ducked his head and spent a few minutes checking that Clint was properly secured to the backboard. 

“Can I do anything to help?” Steve asked. 

“Agent Hill arranged for a medical unit from the base in Great Falls to give us a hand,” Bruce said. “There are real medics top-side. But they could probably use your muscles to haul him up.” Bruce waited until the evac team had Clint safely up then climbed the rest of the way down and headed deeper into the facility to find Tony and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brought along to help with data gathering.

Steve stuck close while Natasha and Clint were being treated. There was a part of him that wanted to force Thor under a doctor’s care as well so they could be certain that the poison used by the Serpents’ sniper wouldn’t have any lasting effects but after hearing Bruce’s story… Well, Bruce’s story was the reason he was hovering over Natasha and Clint. They might have been baseline humans but after finding HYDRA in S.H.I.E.L.D. and learning what General Ross had done and tried to do to Bruce, Steve had no intention of letting his injured teammates out of his sight. Besides, Steve could feel that his metabolism had burned away the poison he’d contacted so he decided to trust that it was the same for Thor.

Steve’s comm unit crackled to life. “Could everyone keep an on Tony,” Bruce requested. “I think he probably does have a concussion.”

“He really was hurt?” Steve asked feeling guiltily.

Bruce sighed, “There’s really not much to be done for it. I’d tell him to stay away from computer screens for a few hours but I know better than to expect him to listen to that sort of advice. Other than that the only thing we can really do is keep an eye on him.”

“Thor, you’re feeling alright now?” Steve checked. 

“Aye, the witch’s brew on those blades has long since passed from my system,” Thor said.

“Stay here with Clint and Nat, I’m going to go get Tony,” Steve instructed. “Bruce might have more medical knowledge than the rest of us but he doesn’t know when to stand his ground, particularly with Tony.”

It took Steve several minutes to track Tony down but he eventually found him on the compound’s lowest level physically disconnecting HYDRA’s servers for some reason. “I’m sorry,” Steve said. “I was angry, because you ignored my orders in the field the only way I had available to save Clint left him with broken ribs. I didn’t realize you were really hurt.”

“You notice the two lookie-loo kids?” Tony asked shortly. “Was I supposed to ignore them?”

_'What kids?,'_ Steve thought. For a moment he considered backing down or giving Tony a lecture on timely sharing of information but… _'Any sort of suggestion that I might have made a mistake would only encourage him to keep on challenging my orders and constantly acting like a loose cannon.'_

“It’s hard,” Steve said. “I know it’s hard to make that sort of choice but collateral damage is going to happen in a battle. You saved those two but Clint’s going to be out of commission for months. Who knows how many unnecessary casualties will happen because we’re a man down next time? We can’t save everyone, I know that’s horrible to say, but it’s the fact of the matter. And if we throw our lives, our teammates’ lives away trying, in the end we won’t save anyone.” 

“Fuck you Rogers,” the brunette muttered as he shoved past Steve.

* * *

Later, long after Tony had managed to slip away. Probably, hopefully, to try to make his date with Pepper, Steve hated the thought of him alone with a concussion. Steve promised himself, once again, that next time he wouldn’t let Tony get under his skin, that he’d keep their interactions professional no matter how he was provoked. _'For Tony’s sake as much as anyone’s. I’m his team leader, I can’t let my judgement be clouded by emotion. Next time I’ll do better.'_


	2. Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Removes anything not in Tony's perspective from the original and adds more of his thoughts, plus a paragraph at the end to mirror the ending of Steve's chapter.

“Pepper, don’t make any plans for tomorrow,” Tony told Pepper’s voice mail as he and Dum-E double checked the first of Clint’s new batch of arrows for defects. “The Avengers have a mission but I’ll be home. It should be simple data gathering.” He sat up and stretched. “Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. the arrow looks good, fabricate a couple dozen, make sure Katniss has a full quiver waiting in the armory. We’re wheels up at the crack of dawn and you know how Capsicle is about punctuality.”

“Of course sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. 

“Then bring up the specs on that wearable glucose monitor Pepper’s been asking for, might as well get some real work done while we wait,” Tony said. 

“Sir, might I remind you that Ms. Hill also requires briefing about the impending mission?” J.A.R.V.I.S. asked politely.

“Shit, Cap hasn’t talked to her yet? Well, I guess technically, she is my employee. Put her on the speakerphone.” 

A few moments later Maria answered her phone with a crisp, “Agent Hill.”

“Maria, light of my life,” Tony gushed. “Have I mentioned that you and a few of your favorite agents are invited on a sightseeing trip to exotic Montana? Plane leaves first thing in the morning.”

“Why and why didn’t I know sooner?” Maria demanded. 

“Because we only just learned about it, intel’s fresh from Maximum Ride,” Tony frowned to himself, Sam had been around for several days, so why had Steve waited to inform the team until the last minute? “An abandoned HYDRA base but it might have some leads as to where they are now. We’re bringing the whole team after the traps Steve and Nat ran into the last time out.” 

Maria sighed, “At least it’s in the U.S., I’ll have us cleared for an operation before morning. But you owe me coffee, Stark, the good stuff.” 

“J.A.R.V.I.S. and I can handle the hacking but I could use some extra eyes and hands to go through any antiquated files,” Tony continued. “I think I might be allergic to printed media.”

“Papyrophobia, we’ll add it to the laundry list of mental issues in your file,” Maria said with excessive solemnity.

“You think that would get me off the hook with Pepper and her reams of forms?” Tony asked.

“Let me think about it,” Maria paused for a very deliberate second. “Nope, not a chance.”

Tony laughed, “I’ll see you in the morning, with coffee. Sulawesi Toraja Coffee work for you?”

“I don’t have a clue what that is but if you’re buying I’ll be delighted to give it a try,” Maria replied.

The next morning Tony was the last member of the team to arrive. Cap was looking disgruntled and Tony figured that was the reason. _‘It was only a couple of minutes. I ought to have him compare notes with Rhodey.’_ Tony thought with amusement. _‘And I’m in my armor. There was that one board meeting where I showed up in a bathrobe, Pepper was not amused… Neither was Obie.’_

He also had a tray of coffee cups which he promptly handed over to the waiting Maria Hill and her ex-Agents, “For keeping you up all night,” he said. “I assume you got all the clearances?”

Maria grabbed one of the cups and held it beneath her nose savoring the aroma and the warmth of the cup. “You’re forgiven for the last minute request, this time anyway, Stark.”

Cap’s frown darkened a few shades. “You knew the mission was first thing in the morning,” he said quietly, pulling Tony aside as soon as they were in the air. “You should have made sure the people you brought into this were fresh for it instead of keeping them up doing you favors.”

Tony rolled his eyes with exasperated fondness, it hadn’t taken any time at all for Steve and Nat to join Pepper and Rhodey in attempting to correct his behavior as if they were Jarvis or his mom. _Thor’s too clueless. Clint’s every bit as crass and mannerless as I am, without the money to get suck-up to label it eccentricity instead of assholeishness, got admire that. Bruce… Hell, I don’t have a clue why Bruce doesn’t.'_

“Eight hours is a myth perpetrated by geriatrics like you Cap,” Tony waved off the criticism. 

Less than an hour later the quinjet touched down on an expanse of cracked, weed-infested concrete near a granary on the outskirts of Fort Benton, Montana. “There’s the entryway, just like Sam said,” Steve guided them toward an old, abandoned, silo that looked like it had last been used when ox-drawn wagons had been in fashion.

Tony used his sensors to scan the ground beneath them, “I’m getting more heat signatures than an abandoned base warrants.” 

“Sam wouldn’t give us bad intel,” Capicle said as if Birdboy was there to get his feelings hurt.

“Just because HYDRA moved out, that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t moved in,” Natasha cautioned. 

Steve stared at Natasha for a moment then, proving his ‘just a **guy** from Brooklyn’ spiel true, he caved. “You’re right. Agent Hill, hold your men back until the site is secured. Clint, Natasha, you think there’s enough cover for you to safely scout it out or should we go in hot and try to subdue them before they can get their bearings?”

“If they’re underground I guarantee they’ve got a healthy vent system,” Clint said. 

“We’ll be in and out with none the wiser, trust us Steve,” Natasha added.

Steve nodded. “Be careful and don’t hesitate to call us in if things go pear-shaped.” 

Tony stepped out of his suit for a moment to help Natasha and Clint disable the alarms on secret entrance below the old grain silo then joined the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. trio and Bruce Banner while the spies headed inside. “J.A.R.V.I.S., does anyone in this hicksville have their security camera saving footage to a server?”

“The bank, two liquor stores and a 7-Eleven, Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported. 

“I shouldn’t stereotype, but let’s start with the liquor store footage,” Tony instructed. “See if anyone interesting has been hanging around town.”

“The liquor store would be your first stop,” Maria said. “Start with the 7-Eleven, in a town like this it’s likely the only place open after midnight, if this is a villain lair they’ve got 7-24 security, if the guards are human the night shift has been hitting the 7-Eleven for snacks on their breaks.”

“You heard the lady J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Tony said.

Several minutes later J.A.R.V.I.S. announced, “It seems Mr. Wilson is correct, this is not an active HYDRA base, however I have paired the security footage to mug shots of several individuals associated with the Serpent Society.” 

Just then the comms crackled to life. “I count upwards of thirty grunts wearing the Serpent Society emblem and carrying heavy artillery,” Natasha reported to Steve. 

“I could have told you that,” Tony broke in.

“If you don't have anything useful to say…” Steve reprimanded him. “Clint, what’s your count?”

“Another five mooks plus four costumes,” the archer said. “One of them’s a hottie but no one we've seen before- Shit, I'm made.”

“Iron Man, go through the ceiling. Get us to him and Nat, now” Steve ordered.

“Aye, aye mon Capitaine,” Tony said as his faceplate snapped down and he blasted off. A quick scan of the tracers in Clint and Natasha's comms overlaid with a sonar and IR map gave him a feel for the bases’ layout and the position of the players. Then he used a small missile to punch through the roof of the complex. Steve was first through the hole, hitting ground along with the last of the debris from the shattered ceiling. Thor was a moment behind him. Tony waited until the two of them had cleared the opening then cut thrusters and dropped through the opening as well.

The underground complex was a light with explosions as Clint fired arrow after arrow into the ground in front of the costumes while Natasha fought off a half-dozen thugs. “Damn! Why didn’t I have these on our last mission?” Clint exclaimed as he fired off another round. Tony decided to take it as a compliment on the arrows rather than a criticism that he hadn’t developed them sooner. 

Steve and Thor plowed into the four, snake-themed costumes, which gave Clint a chance to focus on taking down the growing crowd of minions harassing Natasha. Tony held back, surveying the battle for several moments before shooting off a series of repulsor blasts that caved in a tunnel, trapping fifteen of the minions away from the fighting. Clint's arrows made quick work of a half dozen more. Natasha had rendered four unconscious before Steve made his entry and took out another pair while Clint and Tony were taking their shots. She put down the last man with her signature leg-lock. “What a way to go,” Tony observed as the body hit the floor.

Natasha rolled her eyes then glanced over at Clint, “Thanks for the assist.” 

With the thugs down the two spies and Iron Man switched their focus to the four costumes going up against Steve and Thor: A caped man with a large frill around his neck and an unfortunate mask. A man in green whose lower-body terminated in a snake tail, his arms were clawed prosthetics. A man wearing a mask that covered the top half of his face and supported a cobra like hood. And last, a woman in pink who held back from the fighting to target both Thor and Steve with throwing knives. 

“I've got the girl, so you boys don't have to feel guilty about hitting her,” Natasha said. Tony nodded to himself, the other team’s sniper should be a priority, Steve had his shield but Thor was simply shrugging off the small wounds caused by her knives and the woman was looking way too smug about the relatively minor damage she'd inflicted.

The half-snake man faced off against Steve, his artificial limbs were a match for Captain America's enhanced strength while his snake-like locomotion played havoc with Cap's ability to read his attacks. 

The hooded man ducked under Thor's blow and managed to get both hands wrapped, with disturbing flexibility, around the demi-god’ wrist to immobilize Mjolnir, turning their battle into a contest of strength. 

The man with the frilled collar stood back watching. _‘Mastermind,’_ Tony thought. He saw Clint targeting the man as the other two were too closely entwined with Steve and Thor respectively and even the best archer in the world couldn't predict how the rapid trading of blows might shift the fight and put the wrong person in the line of fire. 

Tony started toward Steve and the snake-man, judging Thor's situation to be more secure. 

An explosion engulfed the ledge where Frill stood. Then Frill appeared out of nowhere behind Thor and sent a jolt of electricity into the demi-god’s hand. Thor cried out as his hand spasmed and Mjolnir tumbled to the ground. Hooded snaked a foot behind Thor’s ankle, spilling him to the ground. As they fell together Frill teleported to where Natasha and Pink were trading blows. Natasha spun the moment Frill appeared and managed to punch him solidly in the throat but wasn’t fast enough to completely block Pink’s thrown blade. A thin line of red appeared on Natasha’s cheek and she stumbled dizzily. “Not going down that easy,” Natasha growled as she threw herself at Pink with a renewed determination. She kicked Pink into a wall and Clint pinned the woman there with a net arrow. 

When Frill appeared near Steve’s battle, Tony was expecting him. He swooped down, grabbed the teleporter around the waist and rocketed upward. As they approached the roof at rapid speed, suddenly Tony found himself halfway across the room and upside down. “Let’s see who loses their lunch first,” Tony challenged and sent the armor into a tight spin, locking his arms around the struggling teleporter. The pair of them blinked in and out around the room careening wildly from one near collision to the next until they dove, head first, into the floor. Laying flat on his back, Tony glanced over at Frill and saw the other man was bloody and unconscious. “I win,” he declared, trying to blink the spots out of his vision.

Still lying on the floor, Tony turned toward the main fight. Without Pink sniping him Cap had started to get the upper hand against Snake-man, he was using his shield to bash at the man’s prosthetics until the claw-like arms were nothing more than bent, sparking metal. 

Thor laughed as he and Hooded fought for the leverage to pin the other. The demi-god’s face was flushed, his eyes dilated and the small cuts from Pink’s knives leaked discolored blood. “Victory will be Thor’s Midgard Serpent!” he exclaimed jovially as he managed to free a hand to summon Mjolnir. With one hand on Hooded’s throat Thor pressed the man to the floor and raised his hammer as if to smash in his skull.

“Thor stop!” Steve exclaimed, he sounded as disturbed by Thor’s murderous good humor as Tony felt.

Power crackled around the hammer and lightning filled cavernous room. “Fuck.” Tony swore spotting two teenager peering into the hole in the roof from where he lay on the ground. 

“Tony! Grab Clint!” Steve shouted. 

Tony lurched to his feet and blasted back toward the hole, grabbing the two teens and yanking them clear just as another lightning bolt answered Thor’s call. “No gawking! Run!” Tony shouted as he dropped the teens several meters from the mouth of the hole. 

“Tony!” Steve shouted. Over the comms Tony heard the sound of breaking bones and a pained grunt from Clint. He flew back into the cavern and saw Clint lying prone on the edge of a high ledge. Steve had his hand raised to catch his shield as it rebounded.

“Big guy, I think he’s down,” Natasha said, adopting her Hulk-calming tones as she staggered toward Thor. “The day’s won, no reason to bring the roof down on your shield-brothers, hmm?” 

Thor blinked owlishly at her then glanced at the charred corpse at his feet. “A glorious victory,” he said smiling. “We shall feast.” 

“Right after Clint and I get a little hospital time,” Natasha promised, leaning into Thor’s side. He lowered the hammer to offer her support. Both Steve and Natasha sighed in relief. 

“Everything alright there?” Bruce asked worriedly over the comms. 

“Fight’s over,” Steve confirmed. “Tell Stark and Agent Hill it’s time for them to get to work.”

“I think I might have a concussion,” Tony said. He barely kept himself from asking if they were grade school with the ‘Bruce tell Tony to go fuck off because I’m not talking to him.’ crap. _Believe it or not, even I know when to keep my yap shut occasionally._

“You’re lucky Clint isn’t dead,” Steve replied angrily. 

Tony couldn’t respond to that so he pointed several of the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents toward the Serpent Society thugs that he’d trapped in the cave-in then took their data experts and tried to find a computer console that had survived the battle. “I got this,” he told the ex-Agents, making an abortive movement to crack his knuckles before remembering that he was still in the armor. “Go look for file cabinets or something.”

“Keeping all the fun stuff for yourself?” one of the ex-Agents snarked. 

“Naturally,” Tony replied. The ringing in his ears made it hard to follow the comm chatter but he gathered that Cap was helping the EMTs extract Clint from the base and they were worrying about possible spinal injuries. 

Tony looked at the console for the moment weighing the difficulty of keyboarding in the armor versus the odds of staggering like he was drunk if he didn’t have J.A.R.V.I.S. compensating for the fun side effects of having his brain smushed into the inside of his skull. 

By the time Bruce had satisfied his doctor instincts on Clint- _‘Not that kind of doctor my ass.’_ -and joined the data retrieval team Tony had delegated most of the programing duties to J.A.R.V.I.S. Bruce spent several minutes pretending to read the data scrolling by on the screen while actually staring at Tony then asked, “Tony? You okay?” 

“I’m great, in better shape than Clint,” Tony insisted. _‘And talking totally doesn’t make my head throb in time with my pulse.’_

“That’s not-” Bruce began but Tony didn’t stick around to let him finish. 

Tony recalled a brief glimpse of the base’s layout and a server farm in the compounds’ lowest level. _‘I’m not avoiding anyone, we need to bring the servers back for additional review incase there’s anything segregated from the mainframe.’_ Tony was physically disconnecting the HYDRA servers and stacking them for retrieval when Cap somehow managed to track him down. 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said and for a moment Tony felt disarmed but Cap kept on talking, “I was angry because you ignored my orders in the field the only way I had available to save Clint left him with broken ribs. I didn’t realize you were really hurt.”

“You notice the two lookie-loo kids?” Tony asked shortly. “Was I supposed to ignore them?”

“It’s hard,” Steve said. “I know it’s hard to make that sort of choice but collateral damage is going to happen in a battle.”

_“Collateral damage, Tony,” Obie said lifting a van full of kids over his head._

“You saved those two but Clint’s going to be out of commission for months who knows how many unnecessary casualties will happen because we’re a man down next time? We can’t save everyone, I know that’s horrible to say, but it’s the fact of the matter. And if we throw our lives, our teammates’ lives away trying, in the end we won’t save anyone.” 

“Fuck you Rogers,” Tony muttered shoving past the blond.

* * *

Much later. After he’d spent some time with Pepper. After his head had stopped throbbing, Tony told himself it wasn’t a big deal. _‘Friends argue. I’ll upgrade his bike or maybe make him something to retrieve his shield in a battle. It’ll all be good. No big deal really.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I still don't know if I managed to hit that while Tony defends himself with quips and insults, he never really explains himself because it's something that if either Tony or Steve thought about it they'd force the issue trying to fix it.

**Author's Note:**

> "I’ve heard the song." was referencing “Big Lie, Small World” by Sting, which is all about a guy trying to get back a letter before his ex can read it, up to and including assaulting the postman and landing himself before a judge.


End file.
